episode_0043

“You are out of your mind, the guild leader keeps talking to someone.”

“I’m sorry..”

“A guy who doesn’t have the effect of Fencer’s Ring won’t come back no matter how much time passes, so I’m going to die of anxiety.”

“I’m sorry..”

“I was worried, so I came here and found that there was a daughter I was hiding.”

“Well, that’s not it!”

“■■!”

“Look, he says no!”

“…Do you understand what he is saying?”

“…No?”

“…”

“…”

“■■?”

“Haa..”

The older sister sighed and sat down next to the girl who looked like Suyeon, complaining that she was a fool for worrying.

“Who are you?”

“■■?”

A child who still answers in a language he does not understand.

“What is your name?”

“■■Nyamu!”

“Okay, your name is Nyamu.”

“■■Nyamu!”

“Sister..?”

“The name won’t be Oak Tree or Teal Tree.”

“That’s right.”

“Then from now on, you are a nympho.”

“■■!”

I still don’t know what Nyamu is saying, but I think it’s cute.

After that, I told my sister everything I remembered about the 4th floor of the tower.

In a situation where there is currently no food and no idea when support will arrive, we decided to quickly clear the 4th floor.

“First, I will go inside the mansion.”

“Do you have to go now? Can’t I stay overnight and go tomorrow after the Fencer’s ring effect comes back?”

“I can’t sleep in the tower because I have trauma.”

“I really hate you.”

“I really like my sister.”

“■■!”

“Nyamu is also good.”

“What would become of me if I said that!”

While saying that, my sister takes off her ring.

“Swap my ring with yours.”

“No. What should I do if my sister is in danger?”

“I will be outside the mansion. They said it would be safe there.”

“Still, there may be monsters wandering around outside.”

“I waited outside while you fought that monster called Guardian for hours, and you were safe.”

“Still..”

“There is almost no fog now, so quickly wear this and go. I’ll be waiting.”

“..I’ll be back soon, so wait.”

“I made a promise and when the Fencer’s ring is activated, I’ll run away right here.”

“I understand.”

After that, after receiving a kiss from my sister saying I would come back, I walked straight into the mansion.

During the previous battle with the guardian deity, the guardian deity was constantly running from the opposite passage, so I thought there would be a crucial hint related to clearing the tower beyond that passage.

Every time I walked slowly on the old wooden floor, the creaking sound made me feel tense throughout my body.

Holding the red sword in one hand and covering his nose with Lauriel’s cloth in the other, he walked along the only open doors, as if a guardian spirit had jumped in between the closed doors.

I walked into the mansion, maintaining tension with magical power flowing through my entire body.

I walked slowly for an hour, a distance that would normally take 30 minutes on foot.

It was only then that I discovered a frame with an unusual picture on it for the first time.

The painting depicts a guardian spirit carrying the body of a dead child into the mansion.

‘What does it say..?’

The text underneath the frame was still written in an unrecognizable language.

((It’s a picture of a guardian spirit carrying a dead child into the mansion?!!))

“Mom, Shibure!”

((Swearing is bad!!))

“…”

((Pad lips are even worse!!))

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

A little fairy appeared while looking at a creepy framed picture in a mansion that already had a scary atmosphere.

“Next time you come, please at least show me your popularity.”

((Oh, is that what you want as a reward for ranking on the 3rd floor?!!))

“No, show up like this next time too.”

((all right!!))

“Are you here to give me a reward for ranking on the 3rd floor?”

((That’s right!! It took a bit of time because other people wanted rewards that were hard to get!!))

Even though I was wondering what kind of reward he was asking for and why he came to me on the 3rd day of clearing the 3rd floor, I walked out of this mansion with the little fairy in a quiet atmosphere.

((But is it strange?!!))

“What?”

((I came this far, but I can’t see any guardian spirits!!))

“..Is that a problem?”

((Hmm.. No?!! Even if you are not a guardian deity, you can carry the body yourself, so it doesn’t matter!!))

As I was looking at the space I had to walk through, my head turned to the little fairy.

((But Cheonhwi, isn’t it amazing?!! You came this far without the fog effect!!))

“What are you talking about? Fog effect? Wasn’t that just acting that drove people crazy?”

Only then did the little fairy who was walking somewhere look back at me and answer me with an expression that asked if she really didn’t know.

((The fog has a hypnotic effect, right?!! Cooperating with the guardian spirit through it is the way to clear the 4th floor, right?!!))

“What do you mean?”

((Isn’t that strange?!! I would have realized this automatically if I inhaled the fog..!!))

“..So in order to clear the 4th floor… you have to cooperate with the guardian spirit and kill the children?”

((No!! That’s not it!! We’re not killing children!! This is the mansion of dead children?!!))

I stopped in my tracks at the little fairy’s words.

There was also a picture frame hanging in the room we walked into that we had never seen before.

In the frame was a picture of a parent strangling a child.

There was still a language written below that I couldn’t understand.

“…The reward for clearing the 3rd floor has been decided.”

((What is that?!!))

“Translation skill to understand and see all languages in the tower.”

((Oh, this is a secret, but the translation skill is included in the overall reward for clearing the 2nd floor!!))

“I.. need to read it now.”

((..all right!!))

Soon, a pure white light enveloped my body.

((Then see you next time, Cheonhwi!!))

Leaving behind the little fairy who disappears as soon as the reward is given.

I read the words written under the frame.

The writing was so cruel that I wish I hadn’t understood it.

[When the child was 6 years old, the parents strangled the child after hearing a fortune teller’s prediction that disaster would not strike the village if the child was strangled to death.]

ran.

As I ran past the open door, I saw a new picture frame again.

A picture of a parent stabbing his child in the chest with a kitchen tool such as a kitchen knife.

[Parents who have to sacrifice their 8-year-old boy’s heart as a gift.]

I ran again.

[The 5-year-old just wanted to play by the river.]

[The emperor of the empire believed that the heart of a 6-year-old girl was the ingredient for the medicine of immortality.]

[What did a 7-year-old child do wrong to receive such corporal punishment?]

[The parents of a 9-year-old child did not prepare meals for the child.]

[5 years old…]

[6 years old…]

As I ran while looking at dozens of pictures and reading the sentences below, I suddenly saw young guardian gods with pitch-black eyes in a white room beyond.

The last thing before entering the room was a huge picture frame that filled an entire wall.

It was a picture of a child’s corpse in a pure white room, surrounded by hundreds of guardian spirits, transforming into guardian spirits.

An unusually long text written on the side of the picture frame.

I slowly read the text, ignoring the numerous young guardians in the room.

[The children’s parents became their guardians. The guardian spirit had to protect the child, so he could not harm the child directly. But they knew. When only the guardian gods exist in this mansion instead of the body and soul of the dead child. That it is possible to escape this mansion.]

Only then did I realize it.

The conditions for clearing this crappy 4th floor.

‘..I guess I have to kill all the children and bring them here…’

So, when I first came here, the guys from the Comet Guild were handing the child’s body to the guardian spirit.

When I turned my head into the pure white room, I saw the guardian spirits still watching me.

Unlike other guardian gods, those young guardian gods did not rush at me.

It didn’t open its mouth in a strange way towards me, nor did it scream strangely when it saw me.

I was just sitting there, leaning against a wall somewhere, shivering.

I looked at them blankly.

My head was spinning.

For several minutes, I looked blankly at the young guardians who were trembling in fear.

“Even if I were Seolhee, I couldn’t understand why they would kill these kids.”

At that time, I turned around at the sound of someone talking.

Two adult men wearing armor with the Comet Guild mark walking here, carrying the corpse of a child.

“You were really here. They told me to follow the traces and all I had to do was follow the open door.”

A boy collapsed in the arms of the man who said that.

[Parents who have to sacrifice their 8-year-old boy’s heart as a gift.]

A boy was wary of me, holding a kitchen knife that looked exactly like the knife that stabbed him in the heart.

“Ah..”

I ran back the way I came.

As I was running, I saw people from the Comet Guild walking here, and each time I checked the body of the child they were holding.

A child who starved to death.

A child who died with his heart cut out.

A child who died because the corporal punishment was too severe.

A child who suffocated after his parents pushed him into the river.

I ran like crazy.

“I know too! But it doesn’t work!”

As soon as I reached the mansion’s plaza, I saw what I saw.

It was the Hyeseong Guild employees opening doors here and there and bringing in the corpse of a child from somewhere, and Seolhee noona yelling at the other Hyeseong Guild members while blocking the crowd of children behind her.